There has been a lot of discussion on the value and relevance of Systems Engineering. Just for the record, just because I mentioned that axiomatic design is a quack doesn't reflect that the fact that I find other design methods like lean thinking, and Fred Brook's essence and accidental concepts interesting. I am not vehemently oppose to Systems Engineering like Yoav does nor blissfully in love with Systems Engineering like Matti is. My current mood to Systems Engineering is ambivalence (with a slight tendency to dislike). I do confess that I was really bored with the discussion on axiomatic design in the last lecture. Contrary to my earlier fear, I find that the professor seems to value our disagreement on some of the frameworks that were taught in class. This is good. After all this is academia, it is okay to disagree especially in subjective topics like Systems Engineering.

6/19/2005 5:48:32 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [10]

School

When you regard someone's work with high esteem, your expectation of his/her work goes up. But what happens if his/her work does not live up to your expectation? Utter disappointment and maybe betrayal. Well, that's how I felt after I saw "Star Wars: Phantom Menace" a few years ago. Last night, it was Howl's Moving Castle, although it was more of a disappointment and no betrayal.

Howl's Moving Castle, which was adapted from an English novel by Diana Wynne Jones, is still a great animation with delightful visual textures and out-of-this-world imagination. But compared to Miyazaki's recent works, this movie is a disappointment. The cause of my disappointment lies in the continuity and pace of the story. Like Roger Ebert, I found that the weird and incoherent events and characters introduced in unlikely parts of the story disrupted the continuity of the plot. Halfway through the film, the plot becomes unclear and I found myself getting a little impatient even for a Miyazaki movie. The worst part (spoiler alert) was the plot development in the last 5 minutes of the movie. I rank it to almost to the same level of corniness as that of the dialogue between Skywalker and Amidala in "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones." Overall, I still like the movie because I am sucker for Miyazaki's work just I am for Lucas's. Would I recommend the movie? Well, only if you are a fan of Anime or Miyazaki. I would recommend Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke if you haven't seen any of Miyazaki's films.

6/19/2005 5:47:59 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [14]

Movies

This is the second week into the SDM summer semester. So far, with 5 classes this semester (yes, I am insane), I finding no time for anything else. I was literally passed out last night from a 16 hours day of work/school. I planned on completing my Systems Engineering homework today but I just wasn’t motivated to do it. Being absolutely unmotivated to do school work, I called a few friends to invite them over for a cookout at my deck and thence to watch Howl's Moving Castle, a movie by Hayao Miyazaki of Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke fame.

6/18/2005 9:20:39 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [14]

Social

I have had plans to go to Montreal with some friends over July 4th but I decided against the idea since my summer course load at MIT is more demanding than I had previously anticipated. Therefore, I will stay in town for the entire July 4th weekend, something that I have done for many years. As a consequence of this decision, Yoav and Ilana asked if I would volunteer my deck to host the first SDM barbeque cookout. With self-serving reasons not only to show off my deck but also my culinary prowess, I agreed to host the cookout on July 4th. Even better, Brian called me 2 nights ago to invite me to a Red Sox game on July 1st for free. Score!!! See, staying in town on July 4th weekend isn’t that bad after all.

6/17/2005 11:25:57 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [14]

Social

Why the hell am I doing up at 2:00 am in the morning? I am just finishing up on reading the 3 articles on Axiomatic Design theories that were assigned to us as part of our reading for Thursday’s Systems Engineering class. So far, the reading has been painful and slow because of:

1. 47 pages of single-spaced reading material.
2. Reader-unfriendly format.
3. The subject itself is not necessarily complex but it is certainly deep and require sufficient time to digest and understand.

I really don’t know what to think about these readings. The more I read about axiomatic design, the more I think of it as a quack or voodoo engineering. In my mind, it seems to give us a false sense of precision in system design? In any case, I still think that this is the worst reading assignment so far. Time for bed now.

6/16/2005 2:24:25 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [14]

School

I can't believe that my team, consisting of Kevin, Jeff, and myself, spent over 4 hours working on the last 2 questions in our System Dynamics assignment on Monday. It wasn't our inability to come out with coherent solution in a timely fashion. In hindsight, we began to develop a serious case of tunnel vision, which severely impeded us from thinking clearly, halfway through the assignment. Consequently, our productivity was severely affected. As Matti may attest, this is obviously not a case of lean studying. In the end, the team came to a consensus that we just hand in whatever we have at the time. Being persistent, I continue to pursue for solutions to the 2 questions the following day after a good night of rest. To my surprise, I was able to come out with solutions in less than 30 minutes. The improvement in mental capacity was evident. I have a clearer understanding of the 2 questions than what I was able to the day before.

The moral of the story is to stop working as soon as you develop tunnel vision; it is unproductive and unfulfilling. Sleep, exercise, just do whatever you need to do to clear your mind!!!

6/15/2005 8:39:50 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [11]

Thoughts

So I finally got that piece of paper on June 9th (last Thursday) after almost 5 years of attending the Harvard Extension School at night to pursue a Masters in Extension Studies in Information Technology (or ALM IT). I actually completed all 10 required courses within the first 1 1/2 years of the program (3 years ago) but I procrastinated for another 3 years before I finally got my act together and wrote the thesis, which is required in order to graduate from the program.

I was delightfully impressed with Harvard commencement, which I found it to be very colorful and entertaining. To Siobhan's chagrin, I have always appeared apathetic to the Masters program at the Harvard Extension School. I finally realized (or affirmed) why I felt this way during my commencement last week. My apathy stems from the fact that I hardly know anyone in the program. I have nothing or nobody at Harvard to identify myself with. The social dynamics and community engagement, in my opinion, are weak since most students are working professionals who attend the school part time during evenings. I am hoping that my current academic experience at MIT will be different from that of Harvard. In the end, I am glad I made it through the program.

6/14/2005 9:18:34 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [16]

School

For my friends or blog fans who are into music listening, consider using Audioscrobbler to share your taste of music with the rest of the world.

6/14/2005 8:46:07 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [13]

Music

It has been a while (a week) since I blogged. I even had people asking me to update my blog. Unfortunately, I had too much going on last week ranging from commencement to managing condo trivial politics, all of which had consumed a substantial amount of my precious time. To matter worse, last week was also the opening week of my summer semester at MIT. I spent the last four days trying to catch up with school work. Today, with this week's assignments completed, I finally have the chance take a breath from the crazy schedule.

6/14/2005 8:17:03 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [9]

Personal

Holy smokes!!! I can't believe this. As announced by Steve Jobs today, the beloved Apple Mac is switching over to Intel microprocessor. Until now, all Mac software code uses big endian for addressing and integer representation. With an Intel x86 based Mac, Apple will need to address how legacy code will continue to run on little endian based architecture. Today's software code is highly dependent on the compiler and the underlying class libraries. I am pretty confident that code change won't be substantial and a recompilation on the updated code should suffice. This should ease software developers in transitioning to the Intel x86 architecture. Furthermore, I am sure that the upcoming Intel-based MacOS X operating system will feature an emulator that will enable users to continue running existing PowerPC based software.

As an engineer, I feel that switching from one computer architecture to another presents significant challenges. But historically, Apple has shown resilience and success in implementing 2 major transitions for the Mac. First, from M68k to PowerPC. Second, from MacOS to MacOS X. I have no doubts that Apple will make its third transition from PPC to Intel x86 architecture a success. From a business perspective, I believe that the transition to Intel x86 is a good strategic move for Apple in the long run, it may even provide Apple the competitive advantage over Microsoft and UNIX/Linux based products and solutions. However, I won't be surprised if sales will suffer between now and the time when the first x86 based product is shipped. Who will want to buy a PowerPC G4/G5 Mac knowing that it is going to be obsolete soon? Indeed, Apple will face an uphill battle, marketing and convincing the customers the benefits of getting a Mac now. It is also not clear if Apple will eventually exit out of the hardware business and focus solely in software, MP3 players, and music downloads. In addition, I am not clear if the upcoming Intel-based MacOS X will run on existing Intel PC or Apple brand of Intel based hardware. Let's suppose Apple decides to become a pure software player, it is most likely going to go after the existing x86 PC market. In turn, this can seriously undermine Microsoft's dominance in the computer market. On the other hand, are the revenues from the sales of MacOS X enough to sustain Apple operations? Is hardware the bread and butter of Apple business? I can babble on and on with Apple's transition to Intel x86 architecture but I will stop for now.

So how about it? What are your thoughts on this? I am interested in to hear your thoughts from a business or/and engineer perspectives.

6/7/2005 12:31:39 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [18]

Computers

I had my first class of the summer session today. Like Yoav, I was pleasantly surprised by Prof. Plesko. I was expecting someone with an accounting background to be dry and boring. On the contrary, Prof. Plesko is engaging and energetic. He also mentioned something in class today, which made me like this class even more. He said that this class is not to make us to become accountants, because we can easily achieve that goal far more cheaply at community colleges. The goal of this class is to enable the students to make intelligent decision making and judgment with accounting statements. Nice!!! That's exactly what I am looking for from an accounting class.

6/6/2005 10:52:11 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [18]

School

I have been very busy the past few days as I traveled to New York to pick my sister Alisa from JFK airport. I am now helping her settle down in my humble abode as she will be staying with me for the next 2 months.

Last night, I hung out with Hanri, Fanny, Denise, and Dave (my sister was napping from travel exhaustion). We had a pretty interesting conversation, in which I said that Darth Vader has to be most evil name in existence. The names: Count Dracula, Frankenstein, Freddie Kruger, and Jason Friday the 13th, pale in comparison to the vile name of Darth Vader. But goofy talk about Star Wars and Darth Vader became serious as we engaged in highly intellectual-stimulating talks on social issues and woes. I raised the question that kids are become more unhealthy and obese because of the sedentary lifestyle associated with computers, games consoles, and the Internet. But Dave mentioned that the health problems in today's kids go beyond just having a sedentary lifestyle. Gone are the carefree childhood days of our fathers and forefathers. Kids no longer play on the streets or roam around the nearby woods. Even minor leagues that kids participate in these days are highly organized. Dave concluded that in addition to the sedentary lifestyle associated with computers, the competitiveness and low daily activities contribute to the unhealthy lifestyle of today's kids. Nonetheless, it was the first great summer night to be hanging out with friends drinking and grilling.

I better stop blogging for now and start reading my first assignment for System Engineering, one of the classes that I will be taking in the summer.

6/5/2005 7:08:58 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [17]

Personal

I finally got it. I had an epiphany on my sense and purpose of being at MIT while doing track workouts with the MIT Triathlon Club earlier today. It's really simple, my purpose of being at MIT is to humble and immerse myself in the environment to bring out the best in me. I realized while running on the tracks that I could have had an easier workout by running by myself at my own pace. Instead, I chose to push myself by running with the club and doing a series of alternating sprints and runs. A tougher workout? Sure, but it pushes me to excel my running abilities.

Reflecting back, I now realize that I have been pushing myself since I started at MIT. Despite my mediocre writing skills and busy schedule, I started blogging on this blog site through the encouragement of fellow SDM bloggers like Yoav and Matti. I am still no Shakespeare but I think the blogging experience is starting to pay off. Overall, I see my writing slowly but surely improving. Furthermore, I am more aware of the writing style of others and the literature that I read. I may not articulate as well as some of my classmates but it is true that I do better when I am mentally challenged by people smarter than me.

The point I am trying to make is that MIT is an amazing place that stimulates students’ personal qualities and intellectual abilities and encourages them to act on their energy and enthusiasm. I believe that by embracing on the opportunities that are available and immersing myself in such environment would not only bring out the best of me but to further enhance my personal growth during my limited time at the institution.

6/2/2005 12:17:38 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [11]

Personal

How to append two extra blank columns to a CSV file?

awk '{print $0",,"}' data.csv

6/1/2005 1:50:42 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [9]

Computers

At the moment, my legs and arms are feeling like jelly. I am simply too exhausted from my first swim workout with the MIT Triathlon Club. I was intimidated by the MIT triathletes’ swimming prowess. Not only were they able to cover twice the distance that I did, they also swam effortlessly past me a couple of times. Considering that I only started swimming seriously 2 months ago, I shouldn't get too discouraged with today's workout. Maybe swimming with the MIT triathletes was a bad idea at this point in my young swimming career. Nonetheless, the swimming workout tonight highlighted some areas that I need to improve. I hope to work on those weaknesses and perhaps sign up for a more advanced swimming lesson in the summer. Maybe I will do better in tomorrow's running workout with the club. I am always better in running.

5/31/2005 10:56:41 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [16]

Sports

Finally the weather is conducive enough (or I just don't friggin' care anymore) to play tennis and grill for the very first time this year. For my first grilled food this year, I grilled some chorizos, which I bought from Whole Foods supermarket but I somehow managed to screw it up by overcooking them. This is unacceptable for iron chef.

5/30/2005 10:40:17 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [15]

Personal